Just last month, “Star Wars” fans were treated to the news that Guillermo del Toro was working with Lucasfilm, at least at one point, on a couple of projects, including a solo film about the villainous Jabba the Hutt. Obviously, that was during a time when “Star Wars” was in a state of flux, and Lucasfilm was desperately trying to figure out the way of the world under Disney’s ownership. Now, it appears the studio has a plan moving forward, but for better or worse, that doesn’t include del Toro’s Jabba film.
Happy Sad Confused re-ran a 2015 podcast conversation with del Toro this week in honor of Halloween, and the filmmaker spoke a bit about his Toro’s Jabba the Hutt movie idea, which was in the news recently as del Toro only recently confirmed its existence as a real thing he was trying to make. In that regard, it’s interesting context.
“When I spoke to them when I spoke to [Lucasfilm’s] John Knoll about it, and I said, if I ever do [a ‘Star Wars’ film], I would love to do Jabba the Hutt’s ‘Scarface.’ You know? His ascension in the crime family,” he explained, but taking the time to note this is no longer really a project on the table. “But it’s not a plan, I’m not announcing anything, don’t pick it up [as a thing].”
“I like monsters,” del Toro said matter-of-factly when suggested that he could have directed ‘Star Wars: Episode 9’ for random example. “I just love monsters, and Jabba is a) basically my same shirt size, and b) I love him, man.”
Asked if he would want to make a “Star Wars” film in the future, del Toro didn’t say no but explained his tastes are just getting weirder, which could imply ‘Star Wars’ is just too mainstream for him now (and or, there’s just not a lot of room in the ‘Star Wars’ galaxy to center a film on a monster right now).
“I feel strangely more and more inclined to do more strange stuff; do things that are a little more cagey, a little more quirky, so I dunno,” the filmmaker said.
Del Toro did say that “Star Wars” was seminal for him, though, and that when it first came out, he went to “see it all day.”
“George [Lucas] did, for the first time in an efficient way, created a future that felt used,” he explained about some of the original film’s initial appeal. “Even Kubrick, with ‘2001’ which is impeccable and perfect, it’s a beautiful movie, but everything is new, oil drips are not there, and I think George broke that mold, followed almost immediately by Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien‘ who made it truckers in space with oil drips and bad repair jobs, and steam coming out. I think that made science-fiction real, wearing it down. Before that, it was people in tutus, or speaking in strange tongues with shiny apparatuses, this is the moment it felt… [lived in.]”
So, if you’re a fan of del Toro and “Star Wars” and were holding out hope the Oscar-winning filmmaker would take a trip to the galaxy far, far away, it appears that’s not really in the cards. But man, how cool would it have been to see a full-on crime epic about Jabba the Hutt? It sounds like a silly idea, but with del Toro at the helm, it really seems like it could have been special.
Correction: When initially run, we thought this podcast was from a recent conversation. It’s actually from 2015, and we regret the error (but it still makes for interesting context today and or works into our ongoing Flashback series, so we’ve adjusted it accordingly).